It says something about an individual’s impact on their said sport that one way being discussed of combating his brilliance is to change a 36-year-old rule.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wants to extend the 3-point line beyond 22ft, in the same week Steph Curry has broken his own record for most 3-pointers in a season with 24 games remaining.
At his current rate, the genius from Golden State is on pace to reach 400. In the 2005-06 season, the highest pre-Curry number, Seattle’s Ray Allen sunk 269. Cuban’s idea is similar to reducing the size of a goal to combat Lionel Messi, making the net higher to stop Novak Djokovic or forcing sprinters to wear heavier spikes to try and slow Usain Bolt down.
All three suggestions would be laughed out of court. But Cuban’s argument has some credibility – and not just because overall three-point production in the NBA is steadily increasing – but when Curry’s hot, as he was against Oklahoma City on Saturday night, he’s simply unstoppable.
That’s because he often shoots from further back than 22ft. Not only that, he can score them in transition, when defences are yet to properly set, and off intricate dribbles after totally wrong-footing opposition players.
If he was doing this in a video game, you’d say it was unrealistic and take it back. Curry is playing a totally diffent sport, regularly letting fly from 25, 30 and 38.4ft – as his superhuman game-winner against the Thunder was from.
All done with staggering accuracy; Curry has drained 35 of 52 attempts from long range this season, 28 to 50 feet. That’s 105 points i.e worth more than dunking – the most efficient way of scoring – all of those 52 attempts. That’s mind-boggling.
His game-winner, his record equalling 12th 3-pointer, shows he has gone beyond the parameters of what we’ve learned to expect from a shooter. Not because players haven’t hit buzzer-beating or important triples from that distance before but because it was pre-meditated, with such an effortlessly natural technique and was after four quarters and overtime of intense basketball against one of the league’s best teams.
Also, it wasn’t that unsurprising, really. And that’s what he’s become.
Just like when Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo scoring less than 50 goals a season is seen as a poor campaign, or Bolt not running below 10 seconds, or Djokovic or Serena Williams not smashing a fellow top-10 player in straight sets, when Curry’s shot isn’t followed by a swish, you’re surprised.
When his peers are tweeting astonishment at his feats, and we’re talking LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki – three of the greatest of all time – you know he’s more than a little bit special but, reassuringly, Curry is as humble as they come. He’s breaking boundaries – perhaps literally if Cuban has his way – and is changing the sport with every game-winning performance.
Scores of budding players in their early to mid teens are all trying to become elite 3-point shooters. The days of wanting to dunk your way into the NBA have been cast into their ‘90s heyday.
Granted, we’re yet to to fully get into the business end of the football season, there are still three grand slams, golf’s four majors, while the Olympics are five months off, but no sportsperson in the world right now is doing what Curry is producing.
In a sporting sense, he’s from another world.
Most THREES last 4 seasons:
— Doctor NBA (@DoctorNBA) February 28, 2016
[1107] Curry
[852] Thompson
[755] Lillard
[729] Harden
[705] Korver
[672] Mattews
[648] JR Smith
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